Model 61 Escort sighting

[Badkarma 1]

Hi guys, am hoping to gain some info on Smith's little pocket .22 from the 70s.
Already read Paladins excellent treatise on the piece and the varitions. My question is, is it still a practical little shooter (i.e. Backyard vermin getter, plinker?
I'm not going to put a lot of rounds thru it but I'm more a shooter than a collector. But it's a neat piece and one of the nickel plated ones.
Thanks in advance for any help and responses.
Dale

 

[Revoman]

I have one, it's not a target gun. Mine shoots high velocity ammo more reliably than standard velocity.

It is more of a belly gun than a plinker. But I am not parting with mine.

 

[zipty6]

My mother in law has one. It's a neat little gun, but it has consistent problems extracting spent cases.

 

[TTSH]

My question is, is it still a practical little shooter (i.e. Backyard vermin getter, plinker?
I'm not going to put a lot of rounds thru it but I'm more a shooter than a collector. But it's a neat piece and one of the nickel plated ones.

I've got a blued one, purchased used back around 1980. It's not in collector-grade shape, but it was the best I could find at the time. I'll admit that I bought it for it's quirky, unique looking design within the S&W handgun family and not for its shooting prowess. I would love to supplement it with a newer, nicer Model 2213, but the only one I've found so far was on consignment and crazy over-priced.

I've got a lot of fun & effective .22 plinkers. I don't think I'd buy an Escort as my first or only plinker... or even mainly to use as a backyard plinker. But on the other hand, if you find the design weirdly interesting & attractive like I do, then I say go for it!

 

[LittleCooner]

You are stimulating the memory banks with this question. Back in 1972, an escort was my first pistol. Carried it for my work in the woods as a young lad. What i remember was that I could not hit much with it, accuracy was terrible. After all it was just a pocket gun and sometime I would have problems of feeding the ammo I purchased. Learning curve for a young lad. I was glad the guy at the LGS would pay me more than I gave for it 10 years later. I put it back in the box and retired it after purchasing a Charter Arms bulldog and when I was ready to trade, as I remember, they had stopped manufacturing and it was a S&W collecting dust in a drawer.

Personal opinion, its a collector item, not a plinker.

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

I don't remember exactly how well mine shot, but probably fairly well, or I wouldn't have kept it as long as I did. My issue with it was that I didn't trust it to be carried in my pocket with one in the chamber, and it was a pocket gun.

Mine didn't work with CCI, but Remington HSHP was perfectly reliable, in all of my several mags.

Nowadays, I might consider it as a second woods gun, with chamber empty, a real gun properly loaded, and a couple of boxes (50 ea) of ammo in a pocket.

 

[Badkarma 1]

Thanks for the felled folks!
Turns out it's a 61-2 and in decent shape.
Think I'll just sick it away for a rainy day.